FirstNet Benefits of Datacasting

Presenters on Today’s Webinar Patrick Butler, APTS Lonna Thompson, APTS Tom Buono, BIA Kelsey Mark O’Brien, SpectraRep Albert Catalano, Keller and Heckman

APTS Member Station Resolution on FirstNet On February 22, 2016, the APTS member stations adopted a resolution to commit 1 Mbps in principle to work with FirstNet public safety network. AT&T was awarded the FirstNet build-out grant and will send the States the proposed nationwide plan in the next several weeks. Each State will decide to join the AT&T nationwide plan or develop its own plan to be interoperable with FirstNet. State decision-makers are the State Point of Contact and the Governor

Immediate Action is Required: States will Decide on Whether Datacasting is in their Statewide FirstNet Plans (or not) in the Next Few Months.

Critical Steps to Take Set up meetings with your State Point of Contact (SPOC) - https://www.firstnet.gov/consultation/spoc Attend your upcoming FirstNet state meetings, and try to get a speaking role. https://www.firstnet.gov/newsroom/events Provide the SPOC with datacasting materials. Set up a demo of the technology for the SPOC. Stress the importance of partnering with Public Television for the public safety community in their state.

What are the advantages of datacasting to FirstNet and to Public Safety First Responders? What are the key talking points for stations to use when contacting their State Point of Contact?

Advantages of Public TV Datacasting Public television stations reach 97% of the United States population. Public television stations are connected nationwide. Public television operates as connected statewide networks in about half the states. The existing digital television infrastructure is built-out and hardened, incremental datacasting equipment is relatively inexpensive and, nationally, can be built-out in 18 months or less. The existing infrastructure is capable of withstanding natural disasters and manned 24-7 by professional engineers. This technology is data-centric (designed to send video and large files) unlike the cellular networks which are voice-centric. Public television datacasting is proven, with operating systems in a number of markets and successful DHS projects, as analyzed by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.

Target Data Sent in Unused Capacity Protected Datacasting Allocation Does Not Interfere with Broadcasting Broadcasters 6 Mhz signal can support multiple content streams Target Data Sent in Unused Capacity Standard Definition Standard Definition 19.4 Mbps (6 Mhz) High Definition Unlike cellular, the allocation is not pre-emptible. Four datacasting channels can be sent within 1 Mbps of channel capacity, approximately 5% of a station’s bandwidth. This capacity is natively multicast, so it scales infinitely. 100 recipients would require 100 X the bandwidth on traditional cellular networks.

Critical Broadcast Infrastructure is Built: Datacasting Equipment is Relatively Inexpensive

A Number of Critical Public Safety Entities can Benefit from Datacasting

So What is the Potential in the Economics of Datacasting for Public Television Stations?

Key Assumptions One nationwide client. 300 to 500 USB subscribers per market. A monthly USB subscription fee of $10/user. 100 to 150 Network/OpCenter subscribers. A monthly subscription fee of $50/network subs. Build-out begins in mid-2018. Build-out completed during 2019. 75% of total subscription revenue goes to TV partners. TV partner revenue allocated based on market size.

Potential Annual Datacasting Income Assumes: Just one client, but the system can handle multiple clients in 1 Mbps!

QUESTIONS? Contacts: Lonna Thompson (lthompson@apts.org) Kate Riley (kriley@apts.org) Mark O’Brien (mobrien@spectrarep.com) Albert Catalano (catalano@khlaw.com)